A Year
by Chima
Summary: A lifetime of bad memories can be erased by a year of how things used to be and a night with the people you love.


"It's a year now, isn't it?" Sakura says like a question when she comes across him in the kitchen. He doesn't look up at her until she sits down next to him and takes his hand, and even then it's only a tired almost-glare. He knows it's a year today, somewhere inside him. He won't acknowledge it, but he knows. Every day here has hurt him, every hour, every minute. Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes of tension and old pain, stares and accusations. "A year since you came back." Her soft smile is too much for him and he looks back into his coffee cup. "How do you measure it? In daylights? In sunsets?" She looks out the window at the stars as she releases his hand and takes his almost-empty cup - the contents had long since gone cold - and rinses it in the sink. "In midnights? In cups of coffee?" She slips her arms around him from behind and he lets himself be pulled out of his seat. He's almost used to this ritual - every night she pulls him from wherever he had fallen into himself and brings him to bed. He wants to scream at her, _I'm not a child, leave me _alone, but instead lets her lead him along like always. "In inches, in miles? In laughter or strife?" He looks down at her and she's smiling up at him as she opens the door to the living room.

"SASUKE! HAPPY ANNIVERSA--_HURK!"_ Naruto fell backward from where he'd sprung up in front of them, imprint of a fist in his cheek. Every muscle in Sasuke's body is tense, his eyes are red and wide with shock and his arm is still extended from where he'd reflexively punched Naruto.

Everyone is laughing as try to choke out "Happy anniversary!". Hinata is helping Naruto up from where he'd fallen and knocked over a recliner, everyone else pulling party poppers or spinning noisemakers. It takes Sasuke those few moments to compose himself in the bright lights and colors, although he's still wound tighter than wire when Sakura slips her hand in his, giggling.

"How about we measure it in love?" that sweet smile of hers, not simpering like it used to be, but strong and honest and capable. Sasuke looks at Naruto falling over himself as he tries to stand, smirks, and laughs.

-----

"I can't believe it's been a year already, Sasukekun," Ino grins as she passes him a drink. "There's been so much to do, it passed so quickly! Missions and moving - did you know my parents want me to take over the flower shop as soon as Shika and I get married?? There's so much to plan, I don't know what I'm going to _do_, you know how useless he is..."

He let himself get lost in her babbling about the future. Everyone is eating and drinking around him, laughing and playing stupid games; Naruto is singing. He's an excellent guage for how little alcohol is left - the louder he sings, the less booze is left. Hinata is laughing as he sings to her from on top of the coffe table; she's blushing, but so much more outgoing than when she was younger. Proof comes when she reaches out and pulls Naruto down for a kiss, he blinks stupidly at her for a moment before pulling her up onto the table and raising the arm holding his beer up in triumph with a yell. Such simple little things in life that he'd missed while he was gone...and never realized until he came back.

"You're smiling, does that mean you'll do it??" Ino asks suddenly, and Sasuke looks over at her, blinking in surprise. "Oh, I'm so happy, Shika will be too - you'll make an excellent godfather!"

Only then does he realize her hands are clasped over her belly. He blinks again, ready to protest - he's no one to help raise a child - but instead he hears himself saying, "Of course I'll do it." And then Ino is hugging him tight and he doesn't know what to do, just sits frozen in shock until she lets him go.

-----

"She's learned a lot in the past couple of years. Opened up," Neji says quietly as he and Sasuke sip at half-empty cups. Something vaguely resembling possessiveness is in his eyes as he watches Hinata draped sleeping over Naruto on the couch. Naruto's mouth is wide open in a snore, one arm wrapped around Hinata's waist. "You too, in this last year."

"I didn't want to," Sasuke said as if Neji were accusing him of a crime.

Neji waved it off. "Don't get so defensive. It's not a bad thing. Look at Hinata; she's got her own personality now, and she's stronger for it. It doesn't matter that she used to cry every day when you see her smile now."

"Why did you all take me back? After I--" his voice broke and he turned away from Neji. "...after everything I did."

"You burned all your bridges to the ground. But you didn't count on the fact that we'd want to build them again." Neji looked over at him, chin on his hand and watching him as if he were a fascinating creature. Just as Sasuke was beginning to get uncomfortable Neji said, "I see a lot of myself in you. Or maybe a lot of you in myself." He turned his eyes away from Sasuke and down into his cup as he swilled it around, "...And a little more of your brother in me than I'd like to." He drank deeply after that as Sasuke tensed. "The difference between us and him, though, is..." he trailed off. "...Ahh...it was so clear earlier..." He frowned into his cup and drummed his fingers on the table.

He looked up at Sasuke then, and before the Uchiha had a chance to react reached out and caught Sasuke's lips with his own. Sasuke was too surprised to push him away, by the both the suddenness and the emotion behind the kiss. It was tender and cautious, but at the same time strong, and for some reason made Sasuke think of a sleeping tiger. After a few moments Neji pulled away just enough that their lips barely brushed. A small smile was on his face and his pale eyes were half-lidded as he whispered, "It's kind of like that."

Then there was a crash and a yell from the hallway and Neji spun in his seat just in time to see a topless Lee literally bounce off the wall. He was on his feet in an instant, chasing the half-green blur down the hallway. "Lee, get back here! No, don't you DARE take your pants off! LEE!"

Sasuke couldn't help but crack a smile, and when Lee flew into the room and hung from the ceiling with his legs wrapped around one of the rafters - pants still _mostly_ on - and Neji skidded in after him, he burst out laughing.

Everyone froze, staring at him. Lee started laughing with him, tumbling down from the ceiling on top of Neji. It was moronic, they were _ninja_, this entire _party_ was ridiculous and an exercise in idiocy and weakness and mindless indulgence, but for once he felt no reason to stop laughing. He laughed until tears beaded in his eyes, not caring about the weakness of showing emotion as he let his head sink down onto the table and gasped for breath.

He didn't see Lee gather Neji into his arms on the floor, kissing him soundly, but knew he did. He knew that Neji kissed him back, too - and he knew that Naruto wasn't really asleep, and was stroking Hinata's hair gently, as if she were kitten tired from a day of playing. He could see the glow around Ino and the way Shikamaru laid his hand on her belly, and the smile he gave her. He saw Tenten ruffle Kiba's hair and then catch him in a headlock to give him a noogie, leaning against Akamaru with him as they laughed.

-----

It was still dark, but the beginnings of the sunrise were beginning to show silver in the sky. Sasuke heard soft, wordless singing from across the room and turned away from the window - not sharply, as if toward an enemy, but calmly, almost lazily. Sakura was picking her way across the room toward him, stepping carefully over sleeping forms and skewed furniture. She passed him a glass - water - and leaned against the wide sill next to him.

"The story never ends, Sasuke," she whispers. "Let's celebrate." Her smile is back, so honest and open, filling her whole figure with hope and lighting her eyes.

He watches the sky with her as the sun comes up; golds and silvers mixing with soft pinks on the clouds and the slowly brightening blue that dims the stars. _Remember this day,_ he tells himself. _Remember this _year_ with your friends - the ones who took you back when you left them._ Sakura leaned against him and he put an arm around her.


End file.
